Android Wear 2.0 officially releases on new LG smartwatches

Android Wear 2.0 and its flagship LG smartwatches finally make their official debut. The LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style are clearly made for different kinds of user. Both watches have distinct designs that are pleasing to the eye. The LG Watch Sport can be considered bulky but this definitely isn’t a deal-breaker for a smartwatch when brands such as Samsung and Asus haven’t shied away from big smartwatches.

Both watches feature circular P-OLED displays, 4GB of storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, Snapdragon’s Wear 2100 processor clocked at 1.1GHz. They also come with wireless charging and are dust and water resistant. This is where the likeness between the two end. Most of this we knew from the rumours we reported on last month.

LG Watch Sport

The LG Watch Sport’s fitness features include a PPG heart rate monitor, IP68 water and dust resistance, a barometer and accelerometer

The LG Watch Sport takes itself as seriously as its intended audience would fitness and sport. The 1.38-inch display device is designed with average and hardcore fitness junkies in mind. There’s a built-in gyroscope, accelerometer and even a barometer because you never know when you’ll need to measure the atmospheric pressure while planning your running route. More importantly, the Sport also includes a PPG heart rate sensor, and GPS to track where your exercises take you. Android Pay will be making its debut on your wrists with Android Wear 2.0 thanks to NFC built into the LG Watch Sport. There’s also a sim card holder for LTE support. The Sport packs in 768MB of RAM with a 430mAh battery and retails at $349 (Dh1,282).

LG Watch Style

The LG Watch Style is smaller and less smarter than its big brother. It’s meant for the trendy and hip crowd who aren’t fussed over being sporty or with too many features. It comes with a thinner 1.2-inch screen and doesn’t have LTE, NFC or GPS. It does, however, come in three trendy colours: titanium, rose gold and silver, with genuine leather straps. The Style retails at $249 with the rose gold at a slightly higher price tag of $279.

Android Wear 2.0 is officially out but only available on these LG watches for now. Google has said the update will roll out to a variety of existing Android Wear devices within the year. There were no specifics as to when it will happen. Expect a similar roll-out to Android OS updates i.e. slowly and steadily. For more details on how the devices are controlled, check out these scans of their user guides.